Hounding Jim Bridger off the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad is a classic example of pointless New Orleans backbiting.

The crime the "crime commission" should have been investigating was the soot-smudged mess the Public Belt was before Bridger came.

The inspector general should inspect the freshly painted engines and spotless roundhouse. The money for restoring the vintage railcars was spent right here in New Orleans at one of the few facilities in the United States that can restore such cars to Federal Railroad Administration standards.

Those railcars are a point of civic pride. Stop carping about the boozy parties they host. This is not a town of teetotalers. And without spending a dime of tax money or receiving one federal indictment, the 10-year-old Public Belt has new buildings, Class 1 historical railcars and palm trees.

Thank you, Mr. Bridger, for leaving part of New Orleans in much better condition than you found it.

Those railcars should be on regular public display at Jackson Square, not sold -- with a new name on their sides to honor Bridger's detractors: "City of NOsayers."